Hereinafter, a “product” is any software, hardware, or combination of hardware and software, that is packaged, sold, installed, or otherwise deployed in a customer environment. A “customer environment” is a data processing system or data processing environment where a user of the product installs the product for a production use of the product. A “production” use, system, or environment is a use, system, or environment, in which actual data transactions, not testing or sandbox transactions, are performed. A production use, system, or environment occurs or is configured in a customer environment.
A product generally includes numerous features. In many cases, a product, which is feature-rich, can also be deployed in numerous ways in a customer environment. Furthermore, a deployed product in a customer environment can be subjected to a variety of workloads, which can potentially utilize the product in numerous different ways.
A product manufacturer generally attempts to test the product and product features as thoroughly as commercially possible before deploying the product in a customer environment. The testing process generally utilizes one or more test cases that exercise, or provide coverage of, certain product features. In many cases, it is not possible or desirable, at least commercially, to test every single feature, feature combination, utilization scenarios, or configuration, which might be possible for a given product.
Presently, a manufacturer selects a set of features, feature combinations, utilization scenarios, and/or configurations to test with a product. Upon obtaining desirable test results, the manufacturer deems the product fit for deployment. An install-base is a collection of customer environments in which a product is deployed in some manner.